World leaders assemble in Germany for their annual G7 summit tasked with drafting a provisional statement on the current (unspecified) crisis. Isolated from the media in a remote gazebo, they slowly set to work, distracted only by the personal anguish of Canada’s PM (Roy Dupuis), a handsome man beset with personal and political scandals. Yet as the evening draws in they realize there is something far greater amiss. Mysterious dark figures (Protestors? Terrorists? Goblins?) loom in the shadows. Panicked, the leaders of the free world stumble into the woods looking for safety.
This fantastic political satire scores big points for cheek, beginning with an opening caption thanking the G7 for their assistance. The casting is a hoot: Cate Blanchett as a horny German Chancellor… Denis Ménochet as the pretentious French President… Charles Dance as a befuddled, napping American Commander in Chief, who muses about setting up his own assassination. But this is a Canadian movie (the first feature in seven years from the Guy Maddin/Johnson brothers combo), so it’s fitting that our own Prime Minister should get the last word and the biggest catcalls.
Cate Blanchett, Roy Dupuis, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Charles Dance, Takehiro Hira, Denis Ménochet
Canada/Germany
2024
In English, French, Swedish and German with English subtitles
At Vancouver Playhouse
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Ari Aster, Cate Blanchett, Phyllis Laing, Jörg Schulze, Joe Neurauter, Simon Ofenloch, Devan Towers, Jennifer Beasley, Tyler Campellone, Lina Flint, Mary Aloe, Gillian Hormel, Andrew Karpen, Kent Sanderson, Adrian Love, Michael O’Leary, Stefan Kapelari, Moritz Peters, Blair Ward, Anders Erdén, Lauren Case, Eric Harbert, Del Mondor, Shannon Ward, Michael Werry, George Heuser, Jacob Phillips, Stephen Griffiths, Christopher Payne, Sean Krajewski, Ronnie Exley, Lawrence Minicone, Jeremy Ross, Stephen Lamm, Dave Bishop, George Hamilton, James Pugh, Janina Vilsmaier, Judit Stalter, Gábor Sipos, Gábor Rajna, Fred Benenson, Morwin Schmookler, George Rush
Producer
Liz Jarvis, Philipp Kreuzer, Lars Knudsen
Screenwriter
Evan Johnson
Cinematography
Stefan Ciupek
Editor
John Gurdebeke, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson
Original Music
Kristian Eidnes Andersen
Guy Maddin
Guy Maddin has directed thirteen feature-length movies in a career spanning over thirty years. For the past decade, he has worked exclusively in directorial partnership with Evan and Galen Johnson, creating The Forbidden Room (2015), The Green Fog (2017), and the internet interactive Seances (2016). During his solo helming years, Maddin mounted around the world over seventy performances of his films, Cowards Bend The Knee (2002), Brand Upon The Brain (2006), and My Winnipeg (2007) in productions featuring live elements – orchestra, sound effects, song and narration. His screenplay and film-story collaborators include Nobel Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro and poet John Ashbery. In America, his movies Archangel (1990) & The Heart Of The World (2000) won National Society of Film Critics Awards for Best Experimental Film.
Filmography: The Saddest Music in the World (2003); Brand Upon the Brain! (2006); My Winnipeg (2007); The Forbidden Room (2015)
Evan Johnson
Evan Johnson is a writer and filmmaker living in Winnipeg. He studied film and philosophy at the University of Manitoba and worked at Winnipeg’s Rug Doctor chemical bottling plant before being discovered there by Guy Maddin. He co-directed his first feature, The Forbidden Room (2015), with Maddin, and since then has been writing/directing with Maddin and his brother Galen Johnson.
Filmography: The Forbidden Room (2015); The Rabbit Hunters (2020)
Galen Johnson
Galen Johnson is a filmmaker and designer based in Winnipeg, Canada. In 2012, he worked as Production Designer, Title Designer, and Composer on The Forbidden Room, for which he was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for production design/art direction. He has since gone on to co-direct Bring Me The Head Of Tim Horton (2015), the experimental short film website Seances (2016), The Green Fog (2017), Accidence (2017), and Stump The Guesser (2020) all with Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson.
Filmography: Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton (2015); The Green Fog (2017); The Rabbit Hunters (2020)
Missing VIFF? Check Out What's Playing at the VIFF Centre
Possible Love
Lee Chang-dong’s first film since Burning (2018) is a sardonic, slow-burning satire about two couples: a documentary filmmaker married to a wealthy businessman, and a working-class family struggling to make ends meet after the husband has been laid off.
The Exorcist
Thirteen-year-old Linda Blair is Regan, the movie star daughter who is possessed by a demon, and whose body becomes a spiritual battleground. It builds slowly, carefully, into a maelstrom of sheer unadulterated horror.
La Bola Negra
A big, old-school historical melodrama gets a thrillingly modern, queer makeover from Spanish duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, who artfully juggle three gay protagonists across stories set in 1932, 1937, and 2017. Winner: Best Director, Cannes. Screening on 35mm.
The History of Concrete
After attending a workshop on pitching saccharine Hallmark movies, John Wilson tries to apply all the same best practices to his documentary about concrete. Frequently absurd and endlessly entertaining detours, asides, and digressions ensue.
Once Upon a Time in Harlem
Once Upon a Time in Harlem splices together footage shot by William Greaves in 1972 of a group of Harlem Renaissance luminaries in conversation at Duke Ellington’s townhouse. The film is a living archive of memory, disagreement, style, and Black genius.
An American Werewolf in London
Two American students get into a spot of bother with the wildlife in rural England. Then they introduce the virus to the big city... John Landis's goofy horror comedy is a very good night out. So long as it's not a full moon...